Dreary Depressing Day....

This is a piece that Marcia has pulled out of her UFOs and done some additional work on! I really like this one and think the addition of the greys on the sides works really well.

Cold and gray does nothing to improve my attitude or inspire me to get moving on various projects. My instinct is to climb under a blanket and sleep! However, I have managed to move forward and almost complete the Bird of Paradise. I have quilted the heck out of it and it still doesn't lie flat. I have measured it, ironed it and done everything but take pleats in it (I am not beyond doing this extreme measure). It should be flat on front -- the back is flat. That will teach me to mix those pesky high thread count balis in with the nice stretchy stuff! I used some nice firm balis to make the stems which go diagonally across the piece and I think therein lies the problem!

Onward to the next piece though. I had a wonderful day at Marcia's last Wednesday working on the drawing for my next endeavor which will be capturing a great blue heron in fabric. This one will not have any real curves in it and I hereby make a promise to myself to carefully mark the grainlines on all the 8 million pattern pieces! I almost finished the drawing although I have not yet decided what I will use for background. I will take my freezer paper and my crayons tomorrow so I can mark all the tic marks and outline the major areas for piecing. It is a little difficult to see but here is the beginnings of the drawings on a 3 foot by 4 foot piece of tracing paper.

Tomorrow I will take my Bird of Paradise piece for some serious consultation with whomever shows up along with Marcia! It will be another day of basically drawing though which is a great use of Marcia's wonderful studio space.